And these former “friends of the Second Amendment” gave us a nice knife-in-the-back on their way out the door. This is the reason you never get too close to a rabid dog.

We’re not going to tell you that victory doesn’t matter. Or that defeat doesn’t matter. They do.

But for those who are feeling down-in-the-dumps, we would make four points:

FIRST, WE WON THE TWO CRUCIAL BATTLES THAT MATTERED. We sent Harry Reid and his cadre of clowns swirling down the toilet bowl of history. And we have set up an electoral template that will ensure that they don’t regain power in 2016.

In addition, we killed Obama’s legislative gun control agenda. Had we lost the battle against Universal Gun Registration — a.k.a., the Toomey-Manchin background checks — it would have been a serious setback. But we didn’t, and it wasn’t.

SECOND, WE CREATED, FROM SCRATCH, A REBEL ARMY IN THE HOUSE THAT IS READY TO BOLT AGAINST JOHN BOEHNER’S PERFIDY. When we started fighting the unconstitutional, anti-gun Cromnibus, every indication was that we would get zero Republican votes. Zero.

Instead, after a loud and boisterous grassroots campaign, we got 67 — almost a third of the caucus. And by forcing Boehner to spend an entire day begging, one-by-one, for votes, this means that Boehner will be in less of a position to betray us on an unconstitutional, anti-gun amnesty bill.

THIRD, ELEMENTS OF THE PRO-GUN MOVEMENT ARE NOW CONSIDERABLY LESS LIKELY TO SUPPORT ANTI-GUN DEMOCRATS LIKE HARRY REID, JOE MANCHIN, AND MARK BEGICH, AS THEY DID BEFORE.

Save for three exceptions, all Senate Democrats voted for the anti-gun Murthy. And of the three Democrats who voted pro-gun, two of them are being discussed as gubernatorial candidates in two years. This means we are facing the old pattern in which “red state Democrats” will only vote pro-gun if they are facing an upcoming election. Otherwise, they revert to voting anti-gun.

The good news is that this pattern has now become painfully obvious to virtually all of the gun movement. So, hopefully, other gun groups won’t be fooled into supporting anti-gun Democrats and acting as the instrumentalities of their own defeat.

FOURTH, NOW VIVEK MURTHY IS SO DISCREDITED THAT NO ONE IS GOING TO BELIEVE THE GARBAGE SPEWING OUT OF HIS MOUTH OVER THE NEXT TWO YEARS.

Gun Owners of America has always believed that the Second Amendment is worth fighting for, even when we are faced with huge odds. The battle over Obama’s legislative gun control — and the Toomey-Manchin background checks — was initially viewed as hopeless. Yet, we won it, and the importance of that victory was transformational.

We also would have liked to defeat Harry Reid’s scheme to confirm Vivek Murthy. And, while we don’t like to lose, there have been a lot of benefits which have flowed from undertaking the battle.

In a few months, the government-funding bills for the “fiscal year” running fromOctober 1, 2015, through September 30, 2016, will begin to move. It will be “a new season.” And we will start fresh with another opportunity to block Obama’s unconstitutional, anti-gun “executive actions.”

We hope you will be with us in the fight.

ACTION: Click on the links below to see how your legislators voted. If they voted to support the

Constitution, then thank them. If they voted wrong, then express your disappointment. You can see they voted here:

NOTE: The cromnibus bill number is HR 83. But be warned: The description of the bill refers to the tiny legislative vehicle on which the gigantic funding bill was attached for parliamentary reasons. So just realize that the votes you are viewing in actuality refer to the vote on the 1,600 page amendment funding the entire government.

First, the good news. Last week, you contacted your congressional representatives and demanded a “short term” Continuing Resolution. They heard you, and every conservative in Washington is echoing this theme.

Now for the bad news. Even though Republicans just won control of Congress, what’s the first “bright idea” the Republican leadership comes up with after their wave election?

ANSWER: GIVE CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS CONTROL OF THE CONGRESS FOR THE NEXT TEN MONTHS!!!!!

Thankfully, the overwhelming percentage of conservative Republicans in Washington are opposed to this. And that’s why we need to keep lighting the fire under them, so they will continue to keep pressing their leadership to stand up to Harry Reid and Barack Obama.

Here is what’s at stake: Virtually all spending and policy decisions are made on the giant government-funding bill, called the “continuing resolution” or “CR.”

And it’s in the “CR” where we have been able to defund much of Obama’s anti-gun agenda: defunding the shotgun import ban, Fast & Furious, the implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty, etc.

The current “CR” is slated to expire on December 11. So the Republican House has two choices:

1. It can allow the repudiated Democrats currently in control of the Senate (until January 5) to make all of the spending and policy decisions — which will affect your gun rights — until September 30, 2015. It would do this by passing a so-called “long-term CR” which would set policy and spending until the end of the fiscal year (September 30, 2015).

2. Or it would do a “short-term CR” into January, February, or March. This would allow the newly elected Republican Congress to set spending and policy for the federal government for most of next year.

What difference does it make?

Given Obama’s “veto pen,” all of the pro-gun policy for the next two years will probably be achieved on this bill — or not.

When April 15 hits — and millions of Americans are hit with hundreds of dollars of ObamaFines — we may be able to create a massive fight over ObamaCare’s unconstitutional mandates.

And this could be the best chance that gun owners have of eliminating a backdoor gun ban — where health data is compiled on millions of Americans and used to disarm gun owners (similar to how 175,000 military veterans have already been disarmed).

But we can’t do it without a short-term CR.

Finally, with respect to the anti-gun amnesty provisions Obama is about to illegally promulgate by executive fiat? We can address these in a Republican controlled Congress. But we can’t, so long as Harry Reid is in the catbird’s seat.

So we ask this of Republicans: Why did we elect you? It certainly wasn’t so that you could cede all of the spending and policy decisions to Democrats for 37.5% of your congressional term.

It’s time to show some backbone. And the first step is a short-term CR.

Earlier today, the “Harry Reid Preservation Act,” S. 2363, went down to defeat, as pro-gun Senators successfully filibustered the bill by a vote of 56-41.

In a last minute letter to Capitol Hill today, Gun Owners of America told Senators that a vote to end the filibuster “will be viewed as a vote AGAINST veterans … AGAINST concealed carry reciprocity … and AGAINST preserving the gun industry.”

GOA also warned Senators that a vote in favor of S. 2363 would be scored in our end-of-year rating.

S. 2363 would have allowed hunting on federal lands — unless Barack Obama determined that guns were dangerous. How likely do you think that is?

It would have allowed importation of polar bear parts. Okay, that’s fine, in and of itself. But that’s hardly a fair trade for passing a bill that will help reelect anti-gun Senators like Hagan, Begich, Pryor, Landrieu (and others) — Senators who will vote to confirm Obama’s anti-gun Supreme Court justices, thus overturning the Heller and McDonald decisions.

Thankfully, your help in asking Senators to offer truly pro-gun amendments paid dividends — and got noticed by the media. Said one media outlet on Monday:

“Gun Owners of America is urging its members to urge their senators to oppose the Sportsmen’s Act unless Reid allows [Ted] Cruz, [Mike] Lee, and [Rand] Paul the opportunity to offer meaningful, pro-gun amendments.”

These Senators, in addition to John Cornyn (R-TX) and Roger Wicker (R-MS), did a yeomen’s job in fighting to get genuinely pro-gun amendments offered to the bill. These included national concealed carry reciprocity, gun rights for 175,000 military veterans, and a shut-down of Eric Holder’s Operation Choke Point.

But Reid employed a bully-tactic to block all Republican amendments. It consisted of “treeing” the bill and then invoking “cloture” to make the amendments out of order.

Consider how significant your grassroots efforts were. All 26 Republicans who cosponsored the bill ended up listening to your collective voice and voted to filibuster — aka, kill — the bill. They were joined by a handful of anti-gun Democrats who felt the bill didn’t have enough gun control.

So congratulations! And great work! Your activism is a tremendous asset to our efforts in protecting our gun rights.

ACTION:Contact your Senators. Thank them if they voted to support the filibuster on S. 2363. But rebuke them if they supported Harry Reid’s efforts shut off all debate on good, pro-gun amendments.

NOTE: If you click hereand use the GOA Engage site, the correct letter will automatically be chosen.

By now, even the dumbest Senators realize that this “sportmen’s” bill is nothing but a political ploy to keep Harry Reid (D-NV) and Obama’s cronies in power in the Senate. An article in The Hill newspaper made this clear yesterday:

Senator Cornyn is prepared to offer a GOA-supported amendment to allow national concealed carry reciprocity.

Senator Wicker has told us he wants to allow guns on the Army Corps of Engineers’ land.

Senator Lee has told GOA he wants to change the Senate rules to prohibit any anti-gun amendments in the Senate.

And Senators Cruz and Paul have “tons of amendments,” including reciprocity, a restoration of gun rights for 175,000 veterans, and a shutdown of Eric Holder’s Operation Choke Point program (that is designed to close gun stores by cutting off their credit).

This is exactly what GOA (and you, our activists) have been encouraging pro-gun Senators to do over the past week. But we believe that Reid will now “tree” the bill — a process used to block any amendments from being offered.

And we believe that, when they are shut out of offering amendments, many (if not all) Republicans will vote against cloture on the bill.

So ultimately, we still stand a good chance of success. Thank you all for your activism!

ACTION: Contact your Senators and urge them to vote for the Cornyn, Paul, Cruz, Wicker, and Lee amendments. And, if Harry Reid tries to shut out amendments, ask them to oppose cloture on the bill.